Upcoming Events

Bloomsday Festival

11th – 16th June 2019

Bloomsday Festival celebrates James Joyce’s iconic Ulysses through performances, readings, dressing-up and lots more from 11th to 16h June. All event details are available at http://www.bloomsdayfestival.ie

We’re delighted to support two events during the festival

On Joyce and Intimacy with writers June Caldwell and Vigdis Hjorth on 12th June

In association with Dublin UNESCO City of Literature and the Norwegian Embassy in Dublin.

James Joyce is known for writing about life’s intimate moments. When Ulysses was published, it was considered obscene and unreadable by some critics. Joyce responded “If Ulysses isn’t fit to read, then life isn’t fit to live”

Join Norwegian writer Vigdis Hjorth and Dublin author June Caldwell for an intimate panel discussion on the challenges and pleasures of shedding light on dark and complex aspects of modern life. Actor Janet Moran who played Molly Bloom in the Abbey Theatre production of Ulysses, will illustrate the discussion with readings from Joyce’s works and letters.

Vigdis Hjorth is a celebrated Norwegian author with a keen eye for current issues. She is known for writing existentialist books that address people’s life choices and living conditions. Her new novel Wills and Testament starts as a classic story of inheritance and sibling dynamics.

June Caldwell has a MA in creative writing from Queen’s University in Belfast and as won the Moth International Short Story Prize. Her short story collection Room Little Darker was published in 2017 and was described in the Times as ‘an unflinching collection which thuds with life and kicks with horror’. Her debut novel Little Town Moone will be published in 2020.

The event will be chaired by Dimitra Xidous, author of Keeping Bees. Her work has been published in Gorse, The Stinging Fly and Room Magazine.

Every Dubliner has their own story about James Joyce, and no one more so than our best-known Joycean, Senator David Norris. Senator Norris has been at the heart of Joyce’s Dublin for nearly 60 years. For our Bloomsday interview Senator Norris will be in conversation with Irish journalist, and former RTE presenter Anne Doyle to discuss all things Joyce.

David Norris was Senior Lecturer in the Department of English in Trinity College Dublin for almost 30 years. He wrote Introducing Joyce: A Graphic Guide, edited the International James Joyce Symposium and helped organise the Joyce Centenary Celebrations in Dublin in 1982. he was instrumental in establishing the Bloomsday Festival which is now celebrated all over the world on the 16th June each year.

Join us on Bloomsday Eve for what promises to be a magical evening. As part of the event, Senator Norris will present the David Norris Award for significant contribution to Joycean Dublin and Bloomsday to this year’s winner.